If blogging ideas or a blinking cursor have ever been a problem, this blogging ideas post is a must read.

Blogging Ideas #1: Search Forums for Questions

Searching forums is a great way to find blogging ideas for content that will serve people.

Forums are great because the content is created by real people. This means you get a flavor of the questions and general conversation about a given topic.

Quora is an excellent community where real people ask questions and the best answers are ranked highest. It is a very active forum which is a bonus as some questions don’t get too many answers. This means that your content will have a better chance of ranking higher on google as it doesn’t have as much coverage. You can also link an answer to your newly created blog post that answers that question. This is a win-win because you will be helping people and also get some more direct traffic.

Please note that the answers are ranked so only provide a link to your blog post if it specifically answers the question, otherwise your answer will fall lower in the rankings and the link will be clicked less and less.

Note the language people used to ask questions, the simplicity or complexity of the questions being asked and the frequency of questions that appear.

Blogging Ideas #2: Check Competitors Best Posts

What are the most popular blogging ideas that your competitors blogging about?

Is important to understand what your competitors are blogging about within your niche

This can be a great way to get blogging ideas for your website.

Most blogs have “top five posts” or our “most popular blog posts” promoted in their sidebar.

Have you discussed these topics on your blog? Have you an alternative point of view or can you provide even more help to people?

There is no such thing as the perfect blog post so you can always improve upon what already exists and if you reference a competitors blog post, why not let them know and provide a link on your site. This will serve your community as a whole. It is also the first step to networking with key influencers within your niche. Look out for this topic coming soon.

*Remember* It is extremely important that you don’t simply plagiarize people within your niche.

How can you add to this topic? How can you improve what’s already out there? How can you go the extra mile?

Google forms is simple to use and allows you to give people tick box options for answers

This can then be shared with your email list, your Facebook group or even other Facebook groups that you participate in. Make sure you have the permission of the admins is of other Facebook groups to add the survey.

Blogging Ideas #4: Traditional Brainstorming

Never overlook brainstorming.

You can get a whiteboard, you can use post-it notes or even just an A4 pad.

At the center of your brainstorm have the general topic that your blog covers.

Then it’s simple, rack your brain for a defined period of time, say 15 minutes to half an hour but don’t let this become a regular procrastination exercise!

Now go!

Write down as many ideas for articles as you can. Don’t edit them, don’t organize…just keep writing ideas. More and more and more.

At the end of the brainstorming session, you will now have countless ideas that you can potentially go and blog about.

We recommend that these ideas get plugged into your blogging execution strategy which will then let you pick the best idea is to put through our five steps cycle of creating great blog content.

Blogging Ideas #5: Answer Questions Asked in Facebook Groups

The best content answers questions.

General questions in Facebook Groups are a great source of Blogging Ideas.

The question is important enough for someone to ask it in public with their identity next to it.

The blogging idea is effective because if one person has this challenge then more probably have the same challenge.

A blog post on the topic will help more people in the future.

Part 3: Find High Ranking SEO Terms for your Blog Topics

Make a list of possible keywords (brainstorm)

Use SpyFu to see what other sites are ranking for

Sign up for the moz 30 day trial

Use the moz keyword tool to find the right keywords (video tutorial)

**Reminder** What makes a good keyword?

High Relevance to the topic

High Search Traffic

Low Competition

There is a lot of work to this, but it is a real game changer. This will save you time and get you a lot more traffic.

Checkout a walkthrough of the steps below in this video by Phil McGrath. If you need any help with this please email me at paul@content.academy!

1. Select a Blog Topic idea & create an Excel.CSV file
2. Brainstorm 3-5 Keywords and use Google Autocomplete
3. With the results expand your list of keywords to 10-20
4. List 1-5 websites or articles about your Blog Topic Idea
5. Go to Spyfu and “Spy” on the URL’s.
6. Once you enter the link to spy on, the results will show “Top Keywords”
7. Click this tab and list the “Page One Keywords” and add them to your list.
8. Sign Up for Moz Free Trial
9. Upload your Excel.CSV file
10. Moz will then provide SEO information for your list.
11. Work through the list and tick box the terms with the
a. Highest Search Volumes
b. Lowest Difficulty to Rank
c. Highest Opportunity
d. Highest Potential (Moz term)
12. At the top of the page click “I want to” “Move the” to a “New List”
13. Select the 3 Terms that you score best
14. Enter each keyword into the Keyword Explorer and look at the SERP (Search Engine Page Results)
15. List what you could do better e.g. create an image with that SEO, write an article with more detail, focus in the topic from a slightly different point of view ect
16. Settle on one Primary Keyword and two secondary keywords

This process becomes very fast for bloggers and helps get much more search traffic.
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